Disney Trip Day 3- Animal Kingdom!

Our third day there, we had to do something, even though Lena wasn't feeling her best because we wouldn't have time to finish everything before we had to head home.

Super excited for Disney!

So that morning we headed out to the Animal Kingdom. Luckily, Lena seemed to be doing better, smiling and eating a bit and keeping it down.

The kids absolutely loved riding the tram to the actual park. Alta says that was her favorite thing the entire time, silly girl. The first view of the park for the kids was wonderful, they were in awe of everything to see.

 Immediately, they saw Chip N Dale and Rafiki, though they were on their way into the park and not signing autographs at that moment.

This is his suave face.

We headed into the park after our bag searches and ticket scans. We walked around a bit just taking in the sights until it was time for our first fast past. We spotted Daisy Duck and since she had a short line, she was our first character meet!

After Daisy, we meandered over to Africa to get in the FP line for the Safari.

Kilimanjaro Safari was excellent! It was a guided "jeep" (aka large bus/jeep thing, seating 5 or 6 people per bench) driven around the safari part of AK. We saw several types of animals. They seemed like they were all in an open area, but if you looked close, you could see there were barriers.  But Disney does a good job at hiding it. Some of the animals can come really close to the jeep, we had a giraffe standing within 10 feet of us.

After the safari ride, we walked over to It's Tough To Be A Bug, while waiting for our next FP.

Unfortunately, by now, Lena started fussing and became restless and just not a happy girl. We toughed it out in Bug, and once the show started, she chilled out a bit.

When we finished at Bug, we walked over to Dinoland USA because our next FP was for Dinosaur. We stopped and ate our packed lunch, while waiting for the FP time. Meanwhile, Lena started running her fever again and became listless. We decided that I would take the girls back to the hotel and take a nap and depending on Lena, we would come back that evening and catch Lion King with them, or I would just pick them up at park close.

While we were napping, Sam and the boys rode Dinosaur, Expedition Everest, and Kali River Rapids. They also caught Lion King, and the boys were called on stage to participate it the show! I am so sad I missed that! That is the tough thing about being Mommy, having to decide which child's needs come first. Obviously, Lena's came first in this scenario, because health was at risk as opposed to the boys' emotional health. Lucky for me, Sam recorded the entire thing, so I was able to watch them.

The girls and I went to pick up the boys and we came back, had dinner and relaxed.

Missed days 1 & 2? Click Here!

Disney Trip- Day 1 & 2

I guess it has been a while since I last posted. And by that, I mean months. Oops. I'm busy. Really busy. I thought homeschooling would lead us to a more simple life. Instead, we are going from Cub Scouts, to 4-H, to church, to visit friends and family, and on and on and on. Add that to schooling and caring for the kids, home, and animals, I'm a busy mama. But I guess, this is the time of our life. I wouldn't change a thing.

Our family just got home from our very first real vacation. We've only been camping or in a cabin or visiting family before. So this was different. And big. We did our first vacation in a BIG way. We spent 11 days in Orlando at Disney World, Lego Land, the beach, Ripley's, and swimming. It wasn't all fun and games, Lena became really sick during our trip and landed herself in the ER, but after she got better, we had a lot of fun.

DAY ONE:

We packed our bags, and left our house around 5 pm on April 15. Our plan was to drive through the night so the kids would sleep most of the time. Great plan. Except the night before Lena started running a fever and threw up once. On our way out of town, we stopped by urgent care at her pediatrician's, and had them take a look at her. They decided it was teething, but gave us an antibiotic in case she started pulling at her ears or anything. He gave us the all clear to head on down a have a good time. So off we went!

Driving through the night was a great idea in theory, but with a sick and fussy baby who isn't a great sleeper to begin with, it was torture. She cried and fussed 85% of the drive. The other kids did great, sleeping most of the time and watching DVDs the rest.

We got to our hotel around noon on the 16, and they allowed us to check in early, which was wonderful! I have nothing but great things to say about the hotel. We stayed at the Royale Parc Suites (Quality Suites) in Kissimme, FL. It was clean, family friendly, and very nice for a budget hotel. That evening, Lena seemed to feel better, so we went to Downtown Disney.

Parker was having the time of his life in the Lego Store, you could see his mind working on all the new things he could build.

Can you guess which one belongs to which kid?

DTD was nice, not as great as I expected. It was pretty overpriced and under tons of construction. We stopped at Candy Cauldron and the kids got character cookies and Sam and I shared a Mickey cookie. We then window shopped a bit until we got to the Lego Store and the kids loved it. Especially Parker, he was in his element! Prices weren't too bad, I may even hesitate to say, they were cheap (for Legos). They had build your own mini figs 3 for $9.99, so each of the big kids built their own mini fig. After the Lego Store, we walked around some more and found the dancing waters, and since we were getting ready to leave, the kids played and got soaked. Lena started fussing really badly, so we came back to the hotel to get ready for bed.

All the dancing water pics are terrible, the kids were running around like crazy.

DAY TWO:

That evening and night, Lena got worse, she started throwing up and refusing to eat as well as running a fever. After being up all night with her, we pushed our first Disney day back and tried unsuccessfully to find a doctor to see her. Our insurance would not cover any convenient care down there except Walgreens or CVS, unfortunately, they wouldn't see her because she was younger than 18 months old. Again, I called her pediatrician, and asked for zofran to get her hydrated, she refused and again said it was teething or a bug and she would be better by the next day. So instead of Disney, we went grocery shopping, got the kids' some souvenirs, and then went back to the hotel and I took the big kids swimming while Sam stayed with Lena in the room.

View of our hotel courtyard

Our hotel had a kiddie pool, plus a big pool which was awesome for this mama!

Sick baby Lena.

Check out Day 3!

Meramec State Park- Vacation Day 4

Day four was our last morning in the cabin, we had to check out by 11. So we got up, dressed and loaded into the van to leave. It was also a special day, Alta officially turned 2 the last day of our vacation!

We went to the park store to pick out a souvenir for each kid, then checked out. We headed down to the camp grounds to help Dad and Nanoo pack up, which didn't take long. We saw them off towards home and we headed down I-44 toward St. James MO for one more last day of fun.

But first, we had to stop and get the kids' picture taken with the big bucket, which is a tradition for our family, the last time we vacationed here, the boys were 3 and 1.

Our next stop was the world's largest rocking chair in Cuba, MO. The kids thought it was hilarious and wanted to climb up on it.

After the rocking chair, we continued on to St. James and to Maramec Spring Park.

I absolutely love Maramec Springs. It is a beautiful place, full of history, full of nature. I just love it. The kids loved it too.

Maramec Spring was a booming iron works village in the 1840s-1870s. You can see the ruins of the furnaces, the mills, and a few chimneys. It is wonderful and has some much potential for learning.

In addition to the history, there are the springs, which house thousands of trout. You can feed the trout and watch them swim up to the surface in hundreds to eat the food you throw in. Of course, my favorite is the baby trout pools. Even baby fish are cute, haha.

Where the spring came up from the cave underground

Albino trout

Feeding the fish

Feeding the baby fish

So many fish

Just beautiful

There was also an awesome antique farm equipment museum in the park, but very few pictures were taken in there and none were very good. We were all very tired and cranky by that time.

After we had looked all over the park, we started the long 3 hour drive home. But we made it. And picked up the dogs, and loved on them and the cats, checked on the chickens and everything at home was still just as we remembered.

After all, there truly is, no place like home.